Recent advances in camera technology have made digital cameras cheaper, increasingly more readily available, robust and lightweight. It has become increasingly popular for sports people to mount lightweight, robust cameras, such as those sold under the trade name GoPro®, on to themselves or items of equipment in order to record their activities.
These lightweight and robust cameras are easily mountable to a helmet or similar head gear, and allow skydivers, cyclists, motorcyclists, kayakers to record so called point of view (POV) or near-POV footage.
However, it is more difficult for individuals to film themselves at a distance and generally a team is required as well as additional equipment in order to do this. For example, if a mountain bicycler wishes to record their descent of a trail, they can either mount the camera to their bicycle or themselves, aligning the camera so that it records surroundings as they pass from or towards the rider's POV. Alternatively a camera can be mounted to point at the user so as to exclude a great deal, if not all, of passing contextual surroundings from the footage. Alternatively, a user can mount a camera to a partner or a friend's bicycle, and cycle in front of them so that footage of one rider is captured from a distance by another; the distance between the riders allowing the camera to capture both the rider and contextual surroundings.
When the camera is fixed in position there is a risk of injury to a user (wearer or rider), as well as a risk of damage to the camera, for example if there is a collision or impact.
The present invention provides a camera mount suitable for multiple uses, including filming at a distance, and includes a safety mechanism to separate parts of the camera mount when a predetermined amount of force is exceeded.